


the sun keeps on shining, and you welcome the cold in

by verdantElf



Series: cold sunlight (warm moonlight) [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Cuddling, Elf Ears, Elf Ears as Spell Components, Elves with tails, Fuck Sazed (The Adventure Zone), Hurt/Comfort, Kravitz is a good boyfriend, M/M, Merle's in there for a second, Not Beta'd, Post-Eleventh Hour, Pre-Canon, Suicidal Thoughts, Taako Needs A Hug, almost sexy times, maybe next time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 03:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12949983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verdantElf/pseuds/verdantElf
Summary: There's a reason Elves used to be secluded. Taako didn't think it applied anymore.He was wrong.





	the sun keeps on shining, and you welcome the cold in

**Author's Note:**

> Power-wrote this in an hour at midnight after some chat on the Taz Writer's Discord,, please feel this pain with me

He couldn’t stop shaking.

Taako huddled in the corner of the cart, his beloved food cart, and he couldn’t stop shaking. Sazed had parked it in some forest, at least a day and a night away from Glamour Springs, based on what Taako had seen through the cart’s windows as they had fled the scene of the crime. His crime.

He hadn’t moved since then, though he knew that he’d need to soon. Sazed would have to be tired, and they just--they needed to keep moving. Get as far away as they possibly could, from what happened. He had just started to shakily pull himself up when Sazed crashed through the door of the cart, quickly advancing on Taako. Taako retreated a bit, ears folding back and tail permanently stuck between his legs. Of course Sazed would be angry. Taako, the idiot that he was, had managed to kill an entire show’s worth of people. The authorities would be after them both, if anyone was alive to recount who had given them the food.

Taako was backed up against the wall, and Sazed slammed his hands on either side of him, trapping him into looking him in the face. His eyes blazed with hatred, and, well. Taako understood that.

“You stupid elf! You couldn’t even die right!” He growled out. Taako flinched, curling closer around himself. There was momentary confusion until suddenly he understood; he was so terrible, that Sazed had hoped he’d died in the cart. Taako wishes he had, too. “You’ll be useful for fucking something!”

That was all the warning Taako had before Sazed crushed his throat with his left arm, and reached into his belt with the other. He grabbed a knife, and brought it up to Taako’s eye level. He closed his eyes. He _should_ die. He still couldn’t stop shaking.

“Pathetic.” Taako prepared for the knife to stab into his abdomen, his neck. Maybe his eye.

That’s not what happened.

Panicked eyes shot open as Taako tried to scream in pain through Sazed’s arm, because the knife hadn’t been to kill him; the knife was on his left ear, starting to slice through it. He screamed again, this time managing to buck against Sazed, startling him for a moment. It was enough time to cast Mage Hand, and push him off, but hot tears rolled down Taako’s cheeks as the knife sliced through his ear again by Sazed’s flailing arm.

He made it out of the cart, colliding with the doorframe and undoubtedly collecting bruises, and darted toward the horse that Sazed had left untied from the cart, near a tree. If Taako had had the presence of mind to notice, he’d have seen that Sazed had already packed up the horse, clearly ready to run from the cart. But Taako didn’t see that; he just saw swift escape, and by the time he came back to himself, he was hours from where he started, with no one around for miles.

He was still shaking.

 

\--------------

 

Taako stood in his quarters at the BoB’s Literal Actual Fake Moon Base, and looked himself over in the mirror on his desk. He was wearing a lavender blouse, pretty against his dark skin, and an almost-too-short black skirt, tail and arms done up with gold bangles. He leaned closer to the mirror and put matching gold hoop earrings in both earlobes, his fingers skipping over the two slices in his left ear. He, as usual, arranged his long hair to his left side, ear ducking underneath to hide the damage. He leaned back and regarded himself once more.

“Looking good, homedog,” he said to himself. He threw on the shiny black pumps and wizard hat waiting for him at his bedroom door, and strutted into the living room.

Merle looked up from where he was sitting on the couch, watching the Fantasy Television. It was some show about gardening. “Going somewhere fancy?” he asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.

“None of your business, old man,” Taako said, not even glancing at him as he grabbed his Manta Cloak from the hooks by the door. “Don’t wait up for me,” he snorted.

Once out in the hall by himself, Taako allowed himself exactly three seconds of nervousness. This was Kravitz’s and him’s fourth date, and their relationship had shown no signs of slowing down, unlike most of the boyfriends he could remember. In fact, it was going really well. Kravitz was a sweet guy, thoughtful, and genuinely seemed to enjoy spending time with Taako, which was something Taako privately marveled at. Usually his stupidity had driven his paramours away by now. Or drove them to poison entire towns.

But then, Kravitz didn’t seem to think Taako was stupid. Well. He would learn.

Until then, though, Taako was going to enjoy every minute of his company. He took a breath and strode down the hall, and took the stairs to the quad-level. He went to hanger to get a ride to Neverwinter. This date would go fine.

 

\----------

 

The date went _great_.

It went better than great, really, and so much better than great that instead of waiting for the glass ball with him, Kravitz had given him a portal-ride up to the moonbase. Specifically, Taako’s personal room, with his very large bed in it.

As soon as he was through the portal, Taako walked towards the bed and sat down on the edge of it, kicking off his pumps and carelessly shoving them to the side. He looked up at Kravitz through his eyelashes, and patted the bed beside him, right ear flicking with interest. Kravitz gave him a slightly surprised look, but smiled and blushed and made his way over to the bed. Fuck, but he was cute, wasn’t he?

Kravitz sat down on the bed, and turned to face Taako. His blood-red eyes looked lovingly at him, and Kravitz reached for his hand. He looked a little awkward, but mostly hopeful, and Taako grinned when he spoke. “Would it, ah, would it be alright if I...spent the night?”

“Hells yeah, it would be alright, bubbeleh.” He leaned back on the bed until he was lying down, and looked up at Kravitz’s widening eyes. “Just gonna stare, or you gonna do something more interesting?” He smirked and raised his eyebrows, one hand still with Kravitz’s, the other trailing suggestively down towards his skirt, tail lazily waving close to the ground.

Kravitz paused for a moment, and then gave Taako his own grin. “Oh, I think I’ll do a little more than just look.” He abruptly swung his leg over Taako, straddling him, and letting his weight be supported by his left hand. He reached with his right hand, toward where Taako thought it maybe stop at his shoulder or face.

That’s not what happened.

Taako froze, every muscle locking up, as Kravitz pushed his hair away from his ear. Kravitz’s brows lowered in confusion at what looked to be some kind of scars on his boyfriend’s ear, but that’s all he had time to see because not a second later he had been pushed off the bed and to the floor by two powerful Mage Hands, and Taako’s own hands.

Kravitz looked up at Taako in concern and bewilderment, only to find that Taako had shoved himself up against the headboard, curled into a ball. Neither ear was visible, and he was shaking.

He carefully picked himself off the floor, and walked towards Taako, stopping at the edge of the bed. In a soft voice, he said, “Taako, darling? Are you alright?” There was a pause, and while the shaking didn’t stop, Taako shook his head. “Did I do something wrong?” Another, longer pause, before Taako shook his head again. Kravitz found himself frowning in worry, and asked, “Can I come over, love?” An even longer pause, but Kravitz breathed out a sigh of relief when Taako nodded his head.

Kravitz carefully toed off his shoes and crawled onto the bed, settling a foot away from Taako, leaning against the headboard. Taako still wouldn’t look at him, and his ears were hidden from view. “Hey,” Kravitz said, even softer, now that he was next to Taako.

“...hey,” came the whispered, muffled response.

Kravitz thought back, trying to piece together what had caused Taako to panic, and landed on his ear. The ear that, now he wasn’t being pushed, he could remember had two pale scars on it. Kravitz realized what must have happened at some point, and was filled with rage. He brutally shoved it down. Anger would only hurt Taako more right now.

“Can I see?” He asked gently, instead. “I won’t touch, I promise.”

Taako lifted up his head, almost defiantly. He wasn’t going to let anyone hurt his ears again, and if Kravitz tried something, he could almost certainly stop it. He moved into a cross-legged position towards Kravitz, and with only a second of hesitation lifted his hair from his left ear. He watched on as Kravitz stared, looking increasingly horrified, as he surveyed the damage.

Taako knew what it looked like. It wasn’t ugly, with jagged or broken edges, but it was clearly deep slices. There were two slim notches cut from his ear, lined with white scar tissue. The higher one was somewhat shallow, but the lower one cut through almost half his ear, at a diagonal angle. His ear was still sensitive, but he had lost some feeling where the scars had formed.

True to his word, Kravitz didn’t touch, though it looked like he wanted to. Taako saw his breath stutter, before saying, “Who did this to you?”

Taako stilled for a moment, but said, “No one I want to talk about right now, homie.” Kravitz looked like he wanted to say something at that, but thought better of it and just nodded. Then he opened his arms.

Taako barely hesitated before immediately hugging his boyfriend. He let Kravitz carefully arrange them to be more comfortable, and cuddled closer. He would be uncomfortable in these clothes in the morning, but right now nothing could move him from Kravitz’s side. Kravitz gently rested his head on Taako’s tucking him under his chin.

“Do you want me to stay?” He asked, rubbing circles on Taako’s back.

“Yeah,” was the soft reply.

Taako thought, for the first time since Refuge, that things could be alright. 

He wasn't shaking.


End file.
